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Tanizaki describes magical food as something that allows you to escape the boundaries of reality. This is paralleled when Count G. “escapes” Japanese food and city life and travels to what seems to be a Chinese gathering in a back alley. Despite the unclean and poverty-stricken atmosphere, the count acts as if he has found a treasure. He then brings back this “luxury item” to his fellow club members, who start to experience foreign sensations as they eat types of food they never dreamed of eating.

Last week, my friend Kat and I were so hungry that it felt like we had not eaten in weeks. However, the thought of eating food from Parkside was not very appealing. We had now been eating there for about a month, and we were ready to try something new. Since we had nothing better to do on a Saturday evening, we decided to take a shuttle to LA Live, the small district near the Staples Center. The sushi restaurant Katsuya caught our eye, and we decided to go in. I honestly didn’t think the sushi was going to be that good, but at that point, I would have eaten almost anything. Boy was I mistaken! That first bite left me absolutely speechless–I had never tasted better sushi in my entire life. The glazed fried shrimp went perfectly with the spicy tuna roll, and for a moment, I thought I was in heaven. I looked over at Kat, who could not believe how good the food was. We kept ordering and ordering, as if the delectable taste of the sushi had hypnotized us into burning holes in our wallets. We finally had to stop because if our parents found out, they would scream at us for wasting that much money for one meal. It was as if a magical force stopped my stomach from filling up. I did not know how this happened, but I did know that I would be back very soon.